Breaking News: The Postcard Images of George Alfred Barrowclough

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

The past hundred years have brought tremendous advances in the
technology of photography but no improvement in the results a skilled,
dedicated photographer can achieve.

George Barrowclough shot, printed, and sold photographic postcards
before World War I. At a time when newspapers lacked the technology to
print photos, and television did not exist, photo postcards played the
dual role of visually presenting news while serving as a souvenir of a
location or an event. Barrowclough captured the scenes of British
Columbia as it grew from a wilderness to a thriving commercial province.
His work shows us the trains, planes, resorts, retail streets, parades,
churches, fires, schools, city streetscapes, ships, factories, cars,
architecture, and people of the province from approximately 1908 to
1912. Like a news reporter, he recorded the breaking news of the day,
and had his postcards ready for sale the next day. Like an artist, he
did a masterful job of controlling composition and capturing human
interest.

A brief biography of the photographer and notes on the history and
development of British Columbia accompany the 120-plus black-and-white
photos, which cover much of the province, including Burnaby, Richmond,
Vancouver, the Lower Mainland, Fort Langley, and New Westminster.